2004 Romanée-Conti Grand Cru

Aubert de Villaine described 2005 as "a drought year in which the vines adapted well-and much better than they did in 2003." He told me he was worried about getting the dry tannins of 1976, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the wines showed a lot of fruit from the very beginning. Yields for most of the property's crus were in the range of 28 to 30 hectoliters per hectare. Incidentally, Villaine told me that although the domain typically bottles six barrels at a time, the 2002 La Tache and Romanee-Conti were bottled barrel by barrel, as were most of the wines in 1995. DRC prefers to bottle barrel by barrel when they don't want to lose any more CO2. The finished 2004s here are wonderfully complex wines, among the stars of their vintage, but the 2005s, which should evolve in bottle for 20 to 30 years, are extra special. "Two thousand four will always be a vintage for the nose," noted Villaine. "It will always be extremely aromatic."

Yields and selection were the critical factors in 2004, reported Aubert de Villaine, who told me that the growing season was difficult through the end of August, plagued by oidium, botrytis and the August 23 hail storm. The vintage was saved by the dry September and its north wind, and the estate was able to eliminate the dried grapes on the vines. Because the vines had never been stressed during the summer, Villaine added, the sugars went up quickly once the sun arrived, and the potential alcohol in the grapes was mostly in the high 13% range. Only about 20% of the fruit was destemmed in 2004. The estate-wide average yield here was just 28 hectoliters per hectare. The 2003s have turned out splendidly, with the Romanee-Conti my early candidate for wine of the vintage.